Alain walked up to the side of the entrance and Timothy crept up behind him. He squeezed Alain’s tricep to let him know he was ready, and after a short delay Alain bolted through the doorway. He scanned the interior intently as he made his way to the left side of the doorway. Timothy was directly behind him, clearing the opposite side of the tent. Aside from an aged male corpse, him too afflicted by the Cordyceps, the tent was empty. They began to scavenge the contents once the room was declared safe. They followed this process for the remainder of the tents. As they reached the last one they noticed a small barn at the bottom of a slope.“That’s a good two hundred meters away, feel like checking it out?” Alain asked to Tim.“Well, we’re already overloaded, we should probably just head back.”Alain began to walk toward the barn.“Or not.” Timothy said as he turned and followed Alain down the slope.Mathew, having taken advantage of the overhang, had completed a hasty leanto by using the ground sheets from Timothy and Alain’s discarded kit. Mackenzie was resting inside, and was still unconscious but seemed stable. Mathew wouldn’t be able to assess his true situation until he regained consciousness, or of course, if he didn’t. He wasn’t going to take a chance, after having been pelleted by Russian fighter jets, he assumed that perhaps Timothy’s expectation of some kind of follow up was not a stupid prediction. He took the time to camouflage the leanto so that if you looked down the washout it would be very difficult to discern that the shelter was even there. He prided himself on the work he did, and for a moment, relished this little victory. Mathew knew that if one did not take the time to appreciate the small things in life, especially in one such as his, it would be very easy to fall into an uncontrollable and devastating depression. There wasn’t much to give hope to the four of them, and often times they would sit and talk about the past, hoping it would cheer them up. However, nearly every time, they were forced to think of other things, as memories of the past caused a longing for something that could never again become reality. They were survivors, and that was all they could do now. Survive.

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